Wayne Gardner Rides And Rates The 2009 World Superbike Machines

Submitted by David Emmett on Mon, 2009-11-16 21:02

At the end of every season, a few lucky souls get to ride the current year's crop of World Superbike machines. The caliber of the journalists varies enormously, from rank amateur to professional racers, and while accounts such as Jim McDermott's hilarious Walter Mitty-style ride report over at Superbikeplanet.com (part 1 & part 2) provide a great deal of entertainment, I'm sure even my good friend Jim would hesitate to claim he was finding the limits of the 2008 World Superbikes.

To do that, what you need is a bona fide racer. Spanish CEV Formula Extreme racer Kenny Noyes and Canadian Superbike rider Brett McCormick were among the professionals out testing the 2009 pack for various magazines, but the Italian site GPOne.com went one better: In association with Actioncameras.it, they sent former 500cc World Champion Wayne Gardner out to test the machines, and recorded it all on video. You can here his candid opinions on the bikes that contended the 2009 World Superbike championship in the videos below:

Having seen Wayne race at Laguna in 1988 he obviously knows how to ride a GP bike. Interesting to hear him say how good the Aprilia was. And how bad the Suzuki was. Sounds like Spies impressed him a bit too!

Superb Video .. Wayne Gardner is THE most under rated GP racer of all time . Look at his lap times , for pure speed he was neck and neck with k Kevin Schwantz as the fastest rider in the golden years. I know if you look at matchups Spencer or Roberts where fastest(Spencer has beat both Rainey and Schwantz , Schwantz was faster than doohan ect ect) . But most people dont see those earlier years as in the golden years .

I was suprised to hear him say the Yamaha wasnt up to par in the handling Dept and to hear that kawasaki was doing well also took me back !!

So in summary he expects big things from Kawasaki, but thinks the Yamaha was a bit of a handful.. hmm. I remember him writing how fantastic the Suzuki GP bike was too. What were his lap times at this test?

And he's impressed with the 'great variety' of winners in WSBK compared to GP..? He thinks Fabrizio needs to take a 'cold shower on some of his moves', as appossed to Rea who has a 'good head on his shoulders' Lol. Did he actually watch any racing this year..

And he seems surprised that the bikes are as good as his GP bike from nearly 20 years ago. WG was a hard rider but I don't think he's got many brain cells to rub together to be honest.

I was lucky enough to see Wayne beat (again) a pretty class field* at Goodwood this year. Beat? more like demolish.

I was stood at 'No name' a corner where if you run off you hit a large grass bank. That bank looms large when you come down the hill from Fordwater believe me. Wayne barely broke step through there - just squeezing off some speed fully cranked over before charging into Marys. Everybody else seemed so cack handed slow in comparison. A no BS class act.

I am an aussie and Wayne Gardner did so much for his country and motorcycle racing in this country which should be commended and respected. He rode hard and deserved his world champion status but at the end of the day he is a dickhead and what he says should be taken with a grain of salt.

I never saw Gardner race, or even read any of his interviews. Maybe he was a jerk. I must say, though, that was one of the very best video articles I have ever seen. I thought he spoke with the kind of brevity we can all relate to and still get the story. Like he said, 7 wives...

We don't know Rea or ever read his telemetry. We only know what he says to scribes in the few times he's offered. I can say that if Gardner thinks Rea has the stuff, I will watch his race performance closer and his interviews less. On Mr Fabulous...he's being a little harsh. The kid is going to be a champion.

Kawasaki: No doubt they have not had a top rider in a decade. Nobody knows if their stuff is good or bad.

Yamaha: Glad he propped Ben, but the R1 is not a nail (a Krop slang). Other series have had success with it too. It must be a decent platform.